Bolton's Notepad Suggests Military Move on Venezuela

National security adviser John Bolton listens during a press briefing at the White House on Monday. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

(Newser)
–
The White House says "all options are on the table" for Venezuela—apparently including the arrival of American troops to its neighbor. The words "Afghanistan -> welcome the talks" and "5,000 troops to Colombia" were seen scribbled on a yellow notepad in the hands of national security adviser John Bolton on Monday, as he and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced new sanctions against Venezuela's state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), reports the Hill. Twitter users debated whether the note in full view of reporters was an embarrassing misstep or intended to put pressure on embattled President Nicolas Maduro, whom the administration hopes to oust, per USA Today. Either way, the Hill describes three defense officials as saying there is in fact no plan to send troops to Colombia or to Venezuela.

"We … call on the Venezuelan military and security forces to accept the peaceful, democratic and constitutional transfer of power," Bolton told reporters, referencing the administration's backing of Juan Guaido as interim leader. "The [US] president has made it clear that all options are on the table," he added. Mnuchin described PdVSA as a "vehicle for embezzlement" for Maduro's regime, per the Daily Beast, noting the sanctions would only be lifted if Maduro transferred control. Per the AP, Guaido said this would ensure Maduro's government "doesn't continue robbing the people of Venezuela." On the other side of the fence, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov argued Tuesday that the latest sanctions were an illegal attempt by the US to confiscate Venezuelan state assets, per Reuters. (More on Venezuela here.)

The country will come to normalcy and Venezuelan economy will boom - if the brutal uncivilized uncultured grisly gruesome barbarian vultures lift the sanctions, right. These uncivilized uncultured vultures, very first impose sanctions to make the entire population of the country to starve to death(this's the same method under colonialism, uncivilized uncultured British barbarians did to nations called in an another name - Scorched Earth policy - coming from the medieval middle eastern desert donkey rode tribal primitive ultra-illiterate Ethiopian slaves founded Christian god biz storytelling Bible taught them). After imposing the sanctions, the barbarians hope that county's entire population will rise against the rulers. And the rest is the history. When the country's population asking for bread due to barbarian's sanctions - barbarians shout from the rooftops - there's no democracy. So, every nation such as Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan etc the barbarians used the same method, same procedure before countries sent to dust, anarchy or to terrorist and then laugh from the rooftops exhorting the good governance. Is this the world we want to live?

spudsy

Jan 29, 2019 6:08 PM CST

Well at least he didn't have it on a private server like Cheney, Bush, and Hillary did.

Franco

Jan 29, 2019 2:47 PM CST

The only thing standing between the people of Venezuela returning to a normal life is that their military is supporting Maduro... put some troops next door and my guess is that the support for him evaporates.